Woman right at home at Brubeck

Sarah Kuo is making history as the first female member of the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet.

"I don't think of that as much as other people do," said Kuo, a bass player who's one of five recent high-school graduates chosen for University of the Pacific's 2013-14 "fellowship program." "There are so many different aspects of the situation. I'm going in with the mindset that it won't change.

"It should be about the music. It shouldn't be about gender, although gender is an issue these days."

The 12th Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet also sets two other precedents:

It's one of the few times the two-year, all-music program has undergone a complete turnover, with five new student musicians arriving at the same time.

It's also the first Institute quintet without a piano player, which its namesake - the late Dave Brubeck (Pacific, 1942) - was during a 60-year career as an adventurous jazzman.

"Hopefully, Dave - looking down - would approve the less-conventional lineup in the spirit of adventure," Simon Rowe, the Brubeck Institute's director, said in a statement.

Kuo, 18, will learn and make music with three other 18-year-olds - percussionist Jalon D'Mere Archie, trumpet player Max Boiko and guitarist Sean Britt - and Joel M. Ross, 17, who plays vibraphone.

"I definitely think the playing field is being leveled," said Nick Fryer, the Brubeck Institute's associate director. "It's still male-dominated. It's still a struggle. But definitely, in the last 10 years there've been a lot more women who are very well-respected.

"She's really strong. As strong as any we've had. Very accomplished. Aside from being female, for just being a kid in high school, she has a strong command of the jazz repertoire. A mature kind of knowledge for her age, really."

Actually, Kuo, born in Pasadena, didn't know anything about jazz until her freshman year in high school.

Her parents - Sharon works for Herbalife and Jonathan is a banking adviser - started her on piano and violin as a "hobby," Kuo said. "It's funny. My mom said the other day I would improvise at little things. I didn't have to have notes to play. They realized I had a kind of ear for music."

Classical music. Mom and dad bought her a bass when she started at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, playing in school and "outside" orchestras. Before Kuo arrives at Pacific, she'll travel to China with the San Gabriel-based Olympia Youth Orchestra this summer.

Jason Goldman, a friend in her music-composition class, introduced Kuo to jazz. Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman were her primer.

"I didn't know anything about jazz at all," she said. "It caught me off-guard. I was very hooked. Miles Davis. I couldn't understand how he was coming up with such melodic, complex lines without any music."

Also a vocalist, she favors Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

Through Los Angeles' nonprofit Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, Kuo and fellow students performed with Herbie Hancock, Natalie Cole and Barry Manilow, among others.

She's also played in ensembles with female majorities.

Though her parents wanted to "keep me close to home," Kuo said "they offered to fly me up and do an audition. I convinced my parents. It turned out they (Institute officials) wanted me to attend. It was hard to turn down. I'm excited."

It helped that J.B. Dyas, a former Brubeck Institute director, is a Monk Institute vice president.

"She is the first woman out of 50 or so," Rowe said. "So, this is a big deal."

Candidates for the Brubeck Institute program - students study music for two years before moving on to complete their degrees at other colleges and universities - upload applications and musical demonstrations on the Internet.

Live auditions were held on the Pacific campus and March 26 at Stockton's Take 5 Jazz at the Brew club.

Archie is from the Skidmore Jazz Program in Houston, Texas; Boiko is a graduate of Dillard Center for the Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Britt is from Hingham High School in Hingham, Mass.; and Ross is studying at the Chicago High School for the Arts.

Fryer and Kuo - she ultimately plans to study biology and pursue brain research - expect them to be right in improvisational and gender-less synch.

"With these kids, I'm always impressed with how open they are to anything and everything," said Fryer. "For them, it's all about music. I don't think they care one way or another in some ways. The dynamic will change somewhat, but I think it all will be positive."

"I don't feel it's an issue," Kuo said, "but I'm really excited. I've spent a lot of time being the only female."